Played a few hour yesterday on hardcore mode. I definitely made bad choices as someone else mentioned earlier in the thread from just not knowing the systems of the game. Put my satellite in another spot and wasted money throwing an interceptor over there. Also wasted money on a bunch of scopes because I didn't know they would keep me from choosing other things to bring with me. I am sure this game will only go on a bit longer as I have 4 countries in panic. Still, it makes the game much more tense to know I have to live with what happens in the game.

fwiw, you can now view the essentially worthless manual (the page of hotkeys is maybe worth printing, but it won't print properly on a b/w printer in my experience)

Quote from: 2K Greg at forums

The manual is now available from within Steam like it should have been. You can right click on the game in your Steam list and click on "view player manual"

There is a "wiki" of sorts In Game, that's a lot more useful.

Yeah, naming guys and color coding their armor seems fun but so far I just lose too many troops to even reach the point of getting attached to anybody. What I've started doing is changing all rookies to red color armor (a la Star Trek's "red shirts"). And then I've tried to go with various colors for the classes to just sort of visually remind myself what I'm working with. Obviously you don't need to do that - it's just kind of fun.

BJ have you specced your sniper with the skills that uses the others team-mates los? This has been a tremendous help for my Sniper duo. The Assaults and Heavies push forward while the Snipers sit back dropping Aliens. Both of my Snipers tops my other guys for kills except the Heavy you start with in the demo.

My first sniper died, I went with the Snap Shot skill on the other. I guess we can't "respec"? I'll try that other one cause it just feels like my sniper is blind. I guess the idea is that he needs a "spotter," like that Squadsight skill.

Although I'm tempted to just restart, I think it's good practice to do an Iron Man game and just see how it changes your decision-making on the battlefield. I should be smarter/more cautious but I haven't mastered that yet.

Don't talk about how great Squadsight is, or I'm sure Firaxis will fix our wagons on that, so to speak. NERF!

Squad Sight and Snapshot are two different ways of playing. If you want your sniper to stay in the back and deal with anything the rest of the team may uncover, Squad Sight is for you. If you want him to be part of the group and advance along with the others, though a little bit behind them, use Snapshot. The thing is, a sniper can only shoot at things within his own, personal line of sight without Squad Sight, and that is limited in range.

I get the concepts, it's just so far my snipers seem literally blind. I won't say "as a bat," because a bat can at least use his "sonar sense." I mean, I end up using them to throw grenades or switch to pistol and go into Overwatch mode because otherwise they have felt completely useless in early missions.

So I don't think I'll waste any more time on snapshot until I uncover what stupid thing I'm doing (maybe positioning), or what smart thing I'm not doing that makes my snipers unable to target literally anything with the rifle (yes, even when they haven't moved on a turn). I do dig that they can dash up tall buildings and move a good distance on them in one turn; just not that they seem to go up there and put a blindfold on.

First there was Matt Murdock as Daredevil, the blind Super Hero. Now there's Blackjack as Alphonso, the blind sniper...

I really want to believe I'm just doing something stupid, which of course wouldn't be the first time, or even the 27th time.

A useful little tip that's good to know: If you've given your troops armor and they take damage, as long as they don't take more damage than the protection the armor gives them, they aren't actually wounded and won't have to rest after the mission. My squad is equipped with the first armor type you can research, and Tom Cruise took a bolt of plasma to the face in my last mission, dealing 4 points. Since the armor gives 4 points of protection, he was unhurt when we returned to base.

He would also be 6'5" and 260 lbs., as he is in the Jack Reacher movie. Oh wait, he's not, they just zoom the camera in from ankle level to make him seem that way.

Yeah I shouldn't have researched the beam weaponry stuff first, shoulda worked on the armor. I'm already pretty much bankrupt, scrounging alloy (about the only thing I've researched that I have a lot of) to sell on the grey market to stay solvent. I was telling Destructor on Steam that it felt like Torchlight II to me (at least how my Outlander has experienced it to L53) -- dying all the time, constantly bankrupt, unable to figure out why other players don't have the same problems.

Still fun though. And since I'm in Iron Man mode on this, just want to see whether I can learn on the fly and dig myself out of this hole, or if I really am already doomed by my many mistakes.

Tip - there are triggers in this game that will cause the difficulty to jump. Researching certain items (especially the items your staff marks are priority) will cause certain things to happen. I think holding off and researching might help with the jump in difficulty

Tip - there are triggers in this game that will cause the difficulty to jump. Researching certain items (especially the items your staff marks are priority) will cause certain things to happen. I think holding off and researching might help with the jump in difficulty

You sure about that? Because the developers have clearly stated that the enemy forces operate on their own timer that is in no way controlled by the player's actions.

Tip - there are triggers in this game that will cause the difficulty to jump. Researching certain items (especially the items your staff marks are priority) will cause certain things to happen. I think holding off and researching might help with the jump in difficulty

You sure about that? Because the developers have clearly stated that the enemy forces operate on their own timer that is in no way controlled by the player's actions.

Tip - there are triggers in this game that will cause the difficulty to jump. Researching certain items (especially the items your staff marks are priority) will cause certain things to happen. I think holding off and researching might help with the jump in difficulty

You sure about that? Because the developers have clearly stated that the enemy forces operate on their own timer that is in no way controlled by the player's actions.

Clearly the game is a living, breathing organism over which Firaxis no longer has control. It is evolving and soon it will DESTROY US ALL!!!!!

My dream AI in any kind of game is still one that evolves and improves as your own tactics do. I'm not sure this is That Game, but I did feel at times that the AI was trying to figure out if I was flanking it, trapping it, etc. I would tell the AI, "Blackjack sucks, stop thinking so much."

There's an interesting squad sight thread that tries to explain that there's a difference between a unit's "line of sight" and it's "sight radius." Something like it's possible to have a target "in sight radius" but not have a clear LOS shot at it. I think that's what I ran into last night. Someone chimed in it's not a skill that gives you "Wanted" bullets that can curve around objects to reach the target.

Yes, there are trigger research and events that cause a difficulty spike.

It's been a nightmare for me since I skipped some technologies or ran out of alloys to build/research them. Then I still managed to complete some really key objectives through very careful play (and now dead very experienced soldiers).

Just so you know, sniper rifles get worse the closer you are to a target, and there's a sweet spot that extends from the edge of the sniper's vision range to about another vision bubble away, then it drops off.

I do have a major gripe about the game now that I'm thoroughly into late game, along with some UI and interface issues.

One thing is that if you remove a soldier from the active mission roster (the pre-mission launch thing) his loadout isn't cleared for use by other soldiers. The only time a soldier's loadout is automatically cleared is if he is injured or dies. The problem that arises is when you have made a limited number of armor and weapons. There is never any reason to make more than 6 of anything since you just switch stuff out, as there's only 1 squad of 6, and you certainly don't have the resources to make more.

I might just skip snipers altogether. Maybe that'll be my schtick. Then I don't have to deal with this LOS and sight bubble issue crap at all. I'd just assume if you get a sniper on top of a building, and you can clearly see enemy units all over the map at varying distances, he should have a clear view and be able to snipe them, but he can't even though he can throw grenades at said targets easily.

Maybe I'll just bring two heavies and two assaults and obliterate everything. The hell with researching stuff. I'll just rampage and blow crap up until my game ends.

Good snipers are necessary in late game where everything does a good job of taking cover, and there's not enough cover spread out to put everyone up front and avoid the copious amount of grenades being thrown.

I've found that my snap fire sniper is still pretty good as he can hang back on overwatch and with his accuracy still hit when I need him to. While not quite taking the place of an assault, his damage output is really good.

Although it is in part due to my assaults and heavies keep dying, but I do have 2 snipers in my team most of the time and it works pretty well.

Supposedly there are 1080p versions of all the cut scenes in the game stored in the gane folder, but they aren't used by default. If you rename the files you can get them to run. In case you are interested in trying this out, one of the posts in the article has links to .bat files to do mass renaming.

UPDATE: Also this little tweak:

Quote

And for anyone else who, like me, hates seeing the long intro logos and everything, it's also easily changed.Go to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XComGame\Config And find the file [DefaultEngine.ini] . Find a header called: PC Startup movies and delete those four lines under it. Removes ALL of the startup logos and instantly goes to the main menu.

And for anyone else who, like me, hates seeing the long intro logos and everything, it's also easily changed.Go to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XComGame\Config And find the file [DefaultEngine.ini] . Find a header called: PC Startup movies and delete those four lines under it. Removes ALL of the startup logos and instantly goes to the main menu.

you can also put a ; in front of the lines if you're not comfortable with removing them (or think you're going to want back that Firaxis logo at some point ), like so:

Did a lot better tonight. Appreciate the tips here even if it sounded like I wasn't listening. Yes I have snipers and am using them, but whenever someone says I HAVE to do something, I tend to want to prove that's not true. But they're fun to use once they have the abilities and stuff.

*Although the AI sometimes impresses me, on this one the alien guy in the armor suit just sort of dashed out in front as if he wanted to get caught in a crossfire. I was like, "C'mon, dude! I almost know what I'm doing now."

*I really have come around to liking the PC controls. I like using my mouse to float around the "phone booth" indicator, and so far -- unlike various TB tactical strategy games I remember -- I have never accidentally moved/selected the wrong guy, or inadvertently moved the guy to some spot other than what I wanted. And for now I even like the extra confirmation step/explanation screen. It helps me learn how everything works, and keeps me from inadvertent blunders... as opposed to advertent blunders.

And I finally got a sniper to Sergeant to up the squad size to 5, and he got a nickname, "Cyclops." More importantly, I lost no troops tonight even if a bunch of guys will be in the hospital for a couple weeks...

I could not make use of my sniper until he managed to get Squadsight, that really changed his effectiveness for the way I play.

Tried playing on Classic difficulty and was doing well until a mission where the X-ray's got mid mission reinforcements that dropped right on top of my guys making all the careful movements I had taken up to that point moot. Mission wipe from that one and I went back and started a Normal game, having real fun with it and there is still a high sense of tension while playing. I do kinda miss the old game where you had to disembark from the shuttle and the nerve wracking first steps waiting for an ambush.

I do kinda miss the old game where you had to disembark from the shuttle and the nerve wracking first steps waiting for an ambush.

My problem in the old game was that I'm move one guy and then boom, something would hit the top of the ramp and I'd start off with multiple casualties. I think that might be one reason they changed in the new game to start on the ground with essentially one free "save" move.

Finally played a mission in this game. Been really busy with real life.

I had my whole squad panic and shoot each other, then 2 guys got poisoned and one got knocked down and was bleeding out. Managed to end the game with three guys at 1 hp and bleeding/poisoned. This is definitely fun/hard.

I do kinda miss the old game where you had to disembark from the shuttle and the nerve wracking first steps waiting for an ambush.

My problem in the old game was that I'm move one guy and then boom, something would hit the top of the ramp and I'd start off with multiple casualties. I think that might be one reason they changed in the new game to start on the ground with essentially one free "save" move.

It was a fun, Saving Private Ryan-like way to start a mission, though it could drag a bit to repeat the same procedure every time.

PC Gamer posted some fun info about unlocking heroes -- however, it disables achievements and the Heroes can't be modified. Maybe it's something to try after you've finished the campaign once or twice, and want to just have some fun. Might also be cool to see if having one or two makes the toughest difficulty level more reasonable to tackle.

PC Gamer posted some fun info about unlocking heroes -- however, it disables achievements and the Heroes can't be modified. Maybe it's something to try after you've finished the campaign once or twice, and want to just have some fun. Might also be cool to see if having one or two makes the toughest difficulty level more reasonable to tackle.

Something else I like about the new XCOM. In the original, if a new mission came up while I still had guys wounded, I'd have to go strip the wounded of their upgraded/new gear for my new guys. Now when someone is wounded their gear is automatically available to my squad in their loadout screen. This works out much better.

I think it's significantly different than the original game in many key ways - some of which I like, others I don't like at all. They've all been stated before, so I won't bother here. I agree very much with Bruce Geryk that the game feels like I am moving from cover point to cover point, functionally reducing the actual choice I have of where to intelligently move on the map - although it is masked somewhat by all the options you have each turn. All the negatives aside, judging this game on it's own merits apart from comparison to the original - I think it is great. Much more importantly, I think it's fun as hell and would give it 4.5 out of 5 stars so far. If the bottom line is to play games to have fun (and for me, it is) - than I'm not sure there is a whole hell of a lot to complain about here. I see myself playing Enemy Unknown for a good long while.

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LD

"Let your enemies fear, for a harlequin of the Laughing God dances at your side."

For my normal game I'm going with buds at a smaller forum I also hang out at. I think when I try to tackle Veteran mode (many will die, I'm sure), I'll go for the GT forum-ite names at that point.=======

Question: Is anyone using laser weapons? I'd seen some posts at official forums complaining about overheating or something like that, and wasn't sure that's something you can improve on w/ further research, or if it's just an intentional drawback for laser weapons in general. Just wondering if it's a weapon I should research.

I'm researching the Carapace Armor at this point. I know you can't research everything, so I'm trying to figure out... well... whatever improvements will protect me from myself.

I guess I'm still pretty early in the campaign, so I've yet to encounter anything that required any special weaponry to defeat.

Just started using lasers and no overheating yet, I do see they have to be reloaded often with the heavy laser only getting 3-4 shots per mag.

I imagine Cpl Zinfan is tasked with running up and shocking X-Rays in Kato's universe, hmm may need to bring along some GT rookies soon to see who has the right stuff. Blackjack may live to die another day!

Didn't think the laser had to be re-loaded any more than the gun counterparts. I can't tell yet if they're doing more damage or not since I'm still early using them but I know from my first game that traditional weapons were just not cutting it anymore. No overheating issues so far.

Just started using lasers and no overheating yet, I do see they have to be reloaded often with the heavy laser only getting 3-4 shots per mag.

I imagine Cpl Zinfan is tasked with running up and shocking X-Rays in Kato's universe, hmm may need to bring along some GT rookies soon to see who has the right stuff. Blackjack may live to die another day!

You nailed it. You have a high survival rate, since I usually use the disarm skill on the X-ray you're about to rush and stun. I'm really not sure if I can send you against a Muton....yet.

A bit of of info some might find helpful that I see people not noticing in various boards. If you can capture an enemy, when you select your unit with the arc thrower the enemy will have a ring around it showing the radius you need to be in to capture it. Some aliens can not be captured, and as such will not display the ring, in other words don't try to capture that Chryssalid!

A bit of of info some might find helpful that I see people not noticing in various boards. If you can capture an enemy, when you select your unit with the arc thrower the enemy will have a ring around it showing the radius you need to be in to capture it. Some aliens can not be captured, and as such will not display the ring, in other words don't try to capture that Chryssalid!

A bit of of info some might find helpful that I see people not noticing in various boards. If you can capture an enemy, when you select your unit with the arc thrower the enemy will have a ring around it showing the radius you need to be in to capture it. Some aliens can not be captured, and as such will not display the ring, in other words don't try to capture that Chryssalid!

Cool! You may have just saved Zinfan's life

Amen to that, I was wondering who was going to draw the short straw and try to taser that little horror.

A bit of of info some might find helpful that I see people not noticing in various boards. If you can capture an enemy, when you select your unit with the arc thrower the enemy will have a ring around it showing the radius you need to be in to capture it. Some aliens can not be captured, and as such will not display the ring, in other words don't try to capture that Chryssalid!

This reminds me, does it make more sense for one particular type of class to use the arc thrower? Or should you just give one to everybody in a given squad? And if you already researched, say, one captured Thin Man, is there any reason to keep capturing that instead of killing that type after that?

An aside - so I take there's not really any way to improve the conventional weaponry, since the whole idea is you have to start using alien tech to improve? I thought maybe you'd be able to research "plasma bullets" or something, that maybe some sort of "hybrid weapons tree" would be neat.

A bit of of info some might find helpful that I see people not noticing in various boards. If you can capture an enemy, when you select your unit with the arc thrower the enemy will have a ring around it showing the radius you need to be in to capture it. Some aliens can not be captured, and as such will not display the ring, in other words don't try to capture that Chryssalid!

This reminds me, does it make more sense for one particular type of class to use the arc thrower? Or should you just give one to everybody in a given squad? And if you already researched, say, one captured Thin Man, is there any reason to keep capturing that instead of killing that type after that?

From a research point of view I don't think there is any advantage, but if you take a unit alive its gun goes into to storage, so when you eventually research plasma pistols or what have you that's one less gun you'll need to manufacture.

Quote

An aside - so I take there's not really any way to improve the conventional weaponry, since the whole idea is you have to start using alien tech to improve? I thought maybe you'd be able to research "plasma bullets" or something, that maybe some sort of "hybrid weapons tree" would be neat.

The Foundry I believe lets you create upgraded guns though I'm not sure how they stack up to just moving to new alien weapons.

A bit of of info some might find helpful that I see people not noticing in various boards. If you can capture an enemy, when you select your unit with the arc thrower the enemy will have a ring around it showing the radius you need to be in to capture it. Some aliens can not be captured, and as such will not display the ring, in other words don't try to capture that Chryssalid!

This reminds me, does it make more sense for one particular type of class to use the arc thrower? Or should you just give one to everybody in a given squad? And if you already researched, say, one captured Thin Man, is there any reason to keep capturing that instead of killing that type after that?

From a research point of view I don't think there is any advantage, but if you take a unit alive its gun goes into to storage, so when you eventually research plasma pistols or what have you that's one less gun you'll need to manufacture.

Also note that run and gun does NOT work with the arc thrower. (sadly?)

We wanted to let you know the details for the PC update for XCOM: Enemy Unknown that went live today (10/11/12). I've included the notes on this patch below:

Various visibility/hiding optimizations Multiplayer text chat support (press J to activate) Mouse button 4/5 will switch soldiers in the Barracks ESC hides the movement grid, if you do not want to commit to a move while it is activated Squad Sight ability optimization Fixed issue when equipping two grenades with Deep Pockets. Fixed Rapid Fire sometimes consuming too much ammo. SHIVs that are damaged will no longer become unusable. Fixed some hangs/soft crashes in tactical combat. Replaced software cursor with the operating system cursor to reduce lag and framerate dependence. Fixed rendering bug which causes some soldier’s hair to appear as if it is rendering on top of environment fog. 1080p movies are now used at all times on the PC.

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Didn't think the laser had to be re-loaded any more than the gun counterparts. I can't tell yet if they're doing more damage or not since I'm still early using them but I know from my first game that traditional weapons were just not cutting it anymore. No overheating issues so far.

Laser weapons get -1 shot verses normal guns, but in return they do more damage. That said, once you plunk down the Foundry and work on an upgrade there, you don't need to worry about that decrease at all.

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